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The Zebra at 420 West 42nd Street

The project's own developer, Daniel Brodsky, calls it "a risky little building." Its own architect, Hugh Hardy, said, "If you strip off the stripes, it's a traditional, conventional apartment building." One neighbor, Mr. Hardy added, said it "looked like the architect had spilled cappuccino over the plans, and it got built by mistake."

It is the new 41-story apartment building at 420 West 42nd Street, a black and white horizontally striped tower (actually, cream and purplish black). The rental office opened the week before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Two weeks after the attacks, Mr. Brodsky was glum; aside from some "prerentals" during construction, not much was happening.

But things had picked up by last week. The $90 million project, which will include a 499-seat Off Broadway theater on the first three floors, is now attracting tenants — albeit at the low end of the range that Mr. Brodsky and his partners, Quinlan &amp; Field, had projected. Apartments are priced at $1,995 a month for a large alcove studio, $2,495 for a smallish one-bedroom and $3,595 for the two-bedrooms. Mr. Brodsky said the rents equal about $46 a square foot annually (the measure that the real estate industry applies); the plans called for $47 to $52.

Right now, the developers are signing leases only up to the 26th floor. When they get a certificate of occupancy for the top 15 floors, they will be able to offer all 264 apartments, many of which have wide views of the Hudson. As of last Wednesday, about a third of the apartments currently available had been spoken for.

The apartment tower is part of a plan to add seven Off Broadway theaters to the street: Playwrights Horizons is constructing a $24 million theater complex next door, at 416 West 42nd Street. (The theater sold its air rights to make the tower possible.) The Brodsky Organization and Quinlan &amp; Field are reconstructing five more theaters nearby, with a total of 600 seats. And finally, there is the 499-seat theater, as yet unnamed, within the new building, built by the Brodsky group and owned and fitted out by the Shubert Organization, scheduled to open next April. This week, Julio Peterson, a spokesman for Shubert, said the shell was almost finished.

The theater interior is also being designed by Mr. Hardy, who is not bothered by what he describes as neighborhood criticism of his building, which has been nicknamed "the zebra." The tower, he said, "is intended to be a building of special character — I don't want to say legendary character. But the Chrysler Building is at the other end of the street, and the patterning and decoration here is meant to have its own pizazz and reflect the energy of 42nd Street."

Mr. Brodsky agrees. "It's not your traditional building that's meant to blend into the surroundings," he said. "Hugh Hardy felt — and we agree — that you build contextual buildings in a place where there is a context. Here, there is 42nd Street." *

The Zebra at 420 West 42nd Street

When they get a certificate of occupancy for the top 15 floors, they will be able to offer all 264 apartments ; I didn't know there were certificates...

It's nice... certainly better than that new hotel on the second picture, to the right of McGrawHill. I'm not talking about the Westin of course. I mean the hotel with a big pale, blind wall.
What's that ?

The Zebra at 420 West 42nd Street

That's Hilton Times Square Hotel. I like the top of the building, it is certainly very colorful (see the picture below). The 42nd Street entrance is, of course, pure Hollywood. The big blind wall facing West overlooks the lot that belongs to Milstein, 11 Times Square. Eventually, there might be a tower erected on the site, currently occupied by a parking lot (see the picture below). This lot is across the street from the site of the future New York Times Tower.

The Zebra at 420 West 42nd Street

Thanks.
I hope the tower you're mentioning gets built.The Bush Tower at 130W 42nd has blind walls as well, but the expected adjacent towers never materialized.

The parking lot is near the future site of the NYTimes Tower, isn't it ?
And another building was projected on top of the Port Authority Bus Terminal. The neighbourhood might look very different different in a few years.

[QUOTE=antinimby;183063]The worst offense committed by this building, even given the ugliness of the tower portion, is that miserable, solid blank wall base facing Dyer Ave. as well as on W. 41 St.

Little effort was wasted here, for sure... But it's good enough for the location: There is hardly any pedestrian traffic on 41st btw 9th and Dyer, or on Dyer btw 41st and 42nd - these arteries are just ramps for the Lincoln Tunnel.